'Warcraft' Director Duncan Jones Wants You to Know It's Not All CGI

The film's director posted some visually pleasing pictures of the film's actual sets.

After Peter Jackson made J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit look like a nine-hour video game, it seemed epic fantasy movies were doomed to become green screen affairs forever. But director Duncan Jones is trying to prove that isn’t true with his actual video game movie Warcraft, based on Blizzard’s fantasy RPG video games, releasing on June 10.

Around midnight EST last night, Jones tweeted some pictures showing the comprehensive sets to his upcoming movie. While it looks like a souped-up Renaissance faire, seeing intricate sets with actual wood and stone is enough make anyone whose eyes glaze over at polished trailers weep with delight. It’s a small reminder why people loved Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy: There was a tactile feel to them, almost as if you could step right into the Shire or Middle-earth. When I watched Jackson’s later Hobbit movies, I felt like I should have been holding a controller.

The first photo was “one of a number of big, beautiful sets” that were made for Warcraft and appears to be a dining or tribunal hall. The second tweet, a response to someone’s assumption the film was all green screen, shows exterior Stormwind city streets and buildings that are several notches above Disney’s Magical Kingdom.